IT hiring gaining momentum, TCS, Infosys show sharp rise

The hiring pattern of the three-month period between April and June of 2013 of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys reveal a sharp rise in the number of employees leaving these software-services majors, indicating there is a growing number of jobs available in the market. Reuters

Infotech (IT) hiring (by the Indian software services industry) is showing signs of a steady pickup in the current fiscal compared with the gloomy scenario of the previous fiscal. The demand for experienced professionals is growing, if early data points of some top-tier IT companies are anything to go by.

The hiring pattern of the three-month period between April and June of 2013 of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys reveal a sharp rise in the number of employees leaving these software-services majors, indicating there is a growing number of jobs available in the market. Typically, this is also a time when a large number of employees leave for higher studies. Another factor that leads to the huge movement of IT professionals in the first quarter of the fiscal is the salary hikes announced by the companies. It is a period when employees look for greener pastures.

The country's largest IT-services company, TCS, which made a gross hiring of 10,611 people in April-June 2013, added only 1,390 people on a net basis while the second-largest player, Infosys, made a meagre 575 net additions of the 10,138 gross additions. During the same period last fiscal, TCS made net additions of 4,962 people on gross hiring of 13,831 while for Infosys the figure was was 1,157 on a gross number of 9,236.

According to the recently released Monster Employment Index, the BPO/ITes (information technology-enabled services) sector was at the top among the highest-growth industries, with its index rising 22% in June 2013 over the last year.

The Indian IT industry provides direct employment to around three million people and, according to the trade body Nasscom, the sector added net 1,88,300 jobs in FY13. However, in the current fiscal, the industry is expecting, on a conservative basis, to hire around 1,30,000-1,50,000 people as some IT companies are still filling up the backlogs from last year's recruitment, largely placements from educational institutions or campus hiring.

According to Suparna Rao, co-founder & CEO, Excellence4u, an employee assessment firm, “A good number of jobs are available in the market and hiring is happening at a good pace.”